17 October 2011

Spiral Knights

Good morning everyone. How was your weekend? Short? I know what you mean.

But now the week is here and it's time to get back to work. So now The Headcrab plays: Spiral Knights.

The game is not that new but I think it's worth talking about since it won GDC online: Best Online Game Design.

- It's pretty much like Zelda -

Butit's online and free. Yeap. Free. What's the catch? Well... This game has one of those systems that says: "Hey you. Having fun? Well screw you. I aint gonna let you play anymore unless you give me some money."

One of the ways it does this is by letting you buy in game currency with real life money. It's not like paid mmo's where you pay for like pets or something. Here, with 5 bucks, you can get a full set of armor and just demolish the first tier of the game. For example: If you buy a sword called Calibur, it will enable you to do a spin attack. And doing that in the first tier? Well. It goes something like this.

- Challenging! -

But then... Tier 2 shows up. And with it this guy:

- Pictured: That guy -

That dude right there is the Jelly King. And when you get there after felling pretty much invincible, even soloing stuff, this dude demolishes you. The first couple of times I was just running around without being able to do a thing.

And so you die, and die, and die and finally you run out of energy. Oh didn't I mention that? You use energy to play. You go to the next level? 10 energy. You die and want to revive? Energy. And that's the way the game controls the amount people pay. They either stop playing and get back to it the next day, or they pay real money to get more energy. Of course you can buy energy with in game currency but that requires a certain level of advancement in game to get the amount of money you need.

Since it's an online game you will be playing with other people. And let me give you this piece of advice. If someone dies: revive them. Reviving yourself costs energy. The more you revive the more it costs. But if someone else does it "just" costs them (or you if you do it) half their hp. Not that expensive.

So help people and save steam (thats the energy name). Wait...

- So much text!!! -

PS: It seems that it is now called "Crystal Energy". But I'm pretty sure that when i started playing (before it was on Steam) it was called "Steam". If anyone could confirm it I will gladly change the post.